I look forward to seeing everyone at Vancouver’s very first local SAP Inside Track Wednesday Sept 15, 2010!

I’ve been given the great opportunity to represent Xcelsius Gurus Network and present on SAP Crystal Dashboard Design (Xcelsius).

I’ll be presenting the following topics and have a thorough Questions and Answer period.

• Why are dashboards used and what are the benefits?
• Dashboard Design and Best Practices
• Dashboard Connectivity – Enterprise and Non Enterprise
• Xcelsius best practices with the designer and internal spreadsheet
• Xcelsius Tips and Tricks
• Xcelsius resources

For more information on the event please visit the event WIKI at

http://wiki.sdn.sap.com/wiki/display/events/SAP+Inside+Track+Vancouver+2010

I’ve had this error pop up while trying to open Excel files (Excel 2007) after installing Live Office on several machines where it says “There was a problem sending the command to the program“. A couple other people ran into the same issue, so I’d like to post a quick solution.

1. Open the Excel program
2. Go to Excel Options
3. Go to Advanced
4. Go to General
5. Make sure “Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE)” is unchecked.

That’s all!

Thus hopefully writing this article will get the practice of using filtered rows ingrained in the
Xcelsius Developers minds.

I’ve created a video below that shows 2 scenarios below using VLOOKUP and filtered rows. I’ve shown how much easier it is to use filtered rows and how much easier it is in the future to maintain.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnk3J2QXbVI

I’ve also attached the source files from the 2 examples so you may do your own comparisons.

You may download the source files here

I’ve attached a video and the example xlf source file which shows how to use the push button as a default/reset button.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2ECKzjfb5g

If you have any additional examples that you would like to share, please post them on the comments section below.

Please download the source file here

I’ve attached a video which shows a couple examples on using dynamic color binding.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCEnMUwdrUw

If you have any additional examples that you would like to share, please post them on the comments section.

I totally recommend that Xcelsius developers use the Canvas container method to group objects instead of the old grouping method.

I am curious of the canvas container performance and if it is buggy as I have not experienced any problems yet, so please feel free to comment with your experiences.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBxNOM7PrUM

Global to object level hierarchy

By default, groups and users will inherit rights from the highest level.

The highest level starts at the Global Settings level.  The second level is the folder level; and finally the lowest level is at the object level.  If we set rights at the current level itself, then those rights have precedence over inheritance (except if rights have explicitly been denied)

Here are a few examples of setting up a group at multiple levels

Group and User security Overlap

Use the following formulas as a guide to understand what happens when inheritance from multiple groups overlap

• Grant + Deny + Not Specified = Deny
• Grant + Not Specified = Grant
• Grant + Deny = Deny
• Not Specified = Denied

For Predefined access levels, the access level with more access will take precedence.

For example:

If user “James” is part of Group “Sales” and “Marketing”.

If “Sales” has “View” access on the Marketing Folder and “Marketing” has “Schedule” access on the Marketing folder.  “James” will have “Schedule” access on the Marketing folder.

User rights take precedence over inherited rights

User rights will always take precedence over inherited rights.

For example:

User “James” is part of the “Marketing” and has “Schedule” access on the Marketing folder.  However we set “James” with “View” access on the Marketing folder.  View access will then take precedence.

The only time an inherited right takes precedence is if an inherited right explicitly denies access.  To override an inherited deny, you must uncheck the box that inherits rights.

Recommendations

• Assign security at the folder level to groups whenever possible.  Avoid setting rights for specific users on specific report objects.  This will reduce the complexity of your system security model.
• Use predefined access levels whenever possible.
• Grant the “Everyone” group No Access at the global level and then grant specific rights to the appropriate groups to prevent any loopholes.
• When setting rights, make sure to include the appropriate Universes and Business Views as well since access may be denied if they are not included.

• Learn how to enhance your data models with advanced Excel functions
• Learn powerful dashboard design and charting techniques
• Learn tricks that will help to optimize the performance of your Xcelsius dashboards
• Gain a solid understanding of XML and XML connectivity in Xcelsius
• Create server-based logins for your Xcelsius dashboards
• Learn how to pass parameters from one Xcelsius dashboard to another
• Learn how create detailed drill-throughs in Xcelsius using encoded URLs
• Learn how to use your Xcelsius dashboards to write back to your server

Much more…

There are 2 ways of assigning access in Business Objects Enterprise

Predefined Access Levels

Predefined access levels are a collection of individual rights that have been set up in the Business Objects Enterprise system to provide common user access requirements.

Advanced rights

By going into the advanced rights, you may totally customize the type of access a user has on an object.

It is simplest to use predefined access levels, as we don’t have to manually configure every single right.

Below is a table of Predefined access levels

Security Hierarchy

The security levels flow in the following manner:

• Global security
• Folder-level security
• Object-level security

Global Security

The default security set for the entire system.   For example when a new folder is added, its default rights come from the global level.

If there are any access levels that are common for the entire system, you should set them at the global level.

Global level rights can be set at the settings management area of the Central Management Console

Folder-level security

Folder level security allows you to set access-level rights for a folder and objects contained within that folder.  Subfolders will inherit the security of their parent folders.

Folder level security can be set by going to the “Folders” page of the CMC, then selecting a folder, and then clicking on the Rights tab.

Object Level security

Object level security is the access-level rights set at the object level.

Folders and Categories

It is important to understand the differences between folders and categories.  Both provide a way of organizing documents and BI content.  Folders provide the physical storage location of a file as well as navigation to content.  Categories provide navigation only.  Folders are required whereas categories are optional.  Thus when using a combination of both, it is recommended that categories are used for navigation only and permissions be set at the folder level.

When you create a new folder, two sets of permissions are automatically assigned:

• Administrators are given the access level Full Control
• Everyone is given the access level Schedule

Since the “Everyone” group is assigned the default access level of Schedule when a folder is first created, all users are able to view, open and schedule any reports saved in the new folder.  For many companies, this type of access level may not be acceptable, so the best practice is to make sure “No Access” is set for the “Everyone” group when creating a new folder.  If you want to give more permission, you can tweak it later on.

If you just need the JavaDocs, please go to http://davidlai101.com/fusioncharts-javadoc/

Steps to build a Fusion Chart in Java

Please ensure that you have example.jsp and example_alternative.jsp open in order to follow the steps below to build a fusion graph.

If you haven’t downloaded the full project file please download it here

Create FusionGraph

First you will want to create a FusionGraph object and set its properties
To create a FusionGraph object you will need to define a Graph Id, Chart Type which is an enum from ChartType and the size of items in each of it’s series. Let’s start with a simple pie graph example that has 5 slices.

FusionGraph pieGraph = new FusionGraph(“pieGraph”,ChartType.PIE3D,5,request);

Note that the request parameter is required so that we can send the FusionGraph object within jsps.
Next you may want to set the properties of the graph by giving it a customized look. Please refer to the Chart XML API found in http://www.fusioncharts.com/docs for the properties you can customize.

For example if I wanted to set the background of the graph to a gradient of white and yellow I would do this:

graph.setChartProperties(“bgColor”,”FFFFFF,CCCC33”);

You will also want to set the width and height of the graph by using the setWidth(int) and setHeight(int) methods, or just go with the default which is width=600, height=300.

Now to create a series inside the graph:

Series series = graph.createSeries(“pieSeries”);

Series

You will have one or more series containing data.

The series object has a set of member properties that you can set. Please refer to the API for more information.

For the pie graph you will probably want to set the values, and the colors for each pie.
To do this you can use the setColor(int index, String color) and setValue(int index, double value) methods.

ChartFactory

When you are finished creating the graph, you will want to put the graph in a ChartFactory so that the Chart Factory can build the desired xml string for the data. To generate the data for the pie graph, code the following:

ChartFactory chartFactory = new ChartFactory();
chartFactory.insertGraph(pieGraph);
chartFactory.buildFusionChart(“pieGraph”); //or use pieGraph.getGraphId() for the String parameter

A new method called “buildDOMFusionChart(String graphName) was created so that we could utilize the FusionChartsDOM_commented.js which allows us to use an html tag to display the fusion chart.

All you need to do is add the following line instead of “chartFactory.buildFusionChart(“pieGraph”)

You would use on the jsp

chartFactory.buildDOMFusionChart(“pieGraph”);

You will need to include in your body tag

<body onload=”setTimeout(‘FusionChartsDOM.RenderAllCharts(true)’,1000)”>

In addition make sure you have the scripts loaded into your jsp if you are using jsp

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE=”Javascript” SRC=”/FusionCharts/FusionCharts.js”></SCRIPT>

<script type=”text/javascript” src=”/FusionCharts/FusionChartsDOM_commented.js”></script>

Using the helper chartBuilder.jsp

The chartBuilder.jsp has built in Javascript that works with FusionCharts.js and renders the chart for you provided that you provide the correct graph parameter. You can either use this method or the buildDOMFusionChart method which is newer.

All you need to do is provide the graphId of the graph you want to display

For example if I wanted to display the pie graph from the earlier examples, I would do this

<jsp:include page=”/tools/chartBuilder.jsp” flush=”true”>

<jsp:param name=”graphId” value=”pieGraph”/>

//or use <%=pieGraph.getGraphId() %> instead of the string

</jsp:include>

Note: You must use example_alternative.jsp to see this

Example.jsp and example_alternative.jsp

Please take a look at the example.jsp attached that will help you build a pie graph using the DOM method. Example_alternative.jsp provides an example of building a chart using the chartBuilder.jsp method. The drawback of using the chartBuilder.jsp method is that you make another server call when calling that jsp. So with pages that have many charts, it will be better using the DOM method.